Contemporary personal computer systems have capabilities for automatically adapting to changes in connection status at their peripheral attachment ports. The Harada et al application, listed above under "Related Application", discloses an arrangement of this kind in which the system automatically reconfigures as device adapters are attached to and disconnected from the system. However, adapter connections in that arrangement are static in the sense that they are not changeable while the system is up and running. Thus, if the system is running an application calling for data exchange with an adapter not currently attached, the system would have to be powered off while the adapter is attached, repowered on, rebooted, and resequenced to the application state it was in before power was turned off.
From the perspective of a computer system user, the foregoing reconfiguration operation would be more efficient if it could be accomplished dynamically, while the application is being run, without turning off system power and without having to reboot the system and reinstate the application process.
Dynamic attachment and disconnection of adapters to running systems, also known as "hot plugging" and "hot unplugging", is known in the art. However, applicants are presently unaware of any teaching in the art of having the system reconfigure automatically, in response to such actions, in a manner which is essentially transparent to applications in process and substantially transparent to system users.
There is a need for providing such autoconfiguration capabilities, which the present invention seeks to fulfill.